The real estate market in Albany in 2016 has been pretty tough…or has it?

15 Dec 2016 Albany 0 Comment

Well, we won’t know the full results until early next year but judging from the statistics from the end of September, Albany has performed pretty well. Compared to the year before:

The median house price has increased 6.7% to $373,500 (and is virtually unchanged compared to 5 years ago)

The number of dwelling sales has dropped to 423 down from 476 in 2015

Block sales have also dropped from 199 in 2015 to 155 year to September 2016

Block prices have firmed up by more than 9% to $175,000

Rental prices have fallen only marginally by 1.4% to an average of $345pw

So compared to Perth and most other regional centres, Albany has actually faired pretty well. The Perth median price has fallen 4.1% and other towns have seen substantial falls; most notably in the Pilbara where the median price in Port Hedland has fallen by more than 50% in the past year.

There is no doubt our sales volume has been down all year but we note with some pride that out of the 72 house sales for the September quarter in Albany, our records show we accounted for a very substantial proportion of these.

Selling days have also reduced by around 6 days to an average of 111 – again, most of our listings have sold considerably quicker than this due to our proactive approach to marketing and providing clear and accurate feedback to our Sellers to enable them to react to market signals in a more timely manner.

So what does 2017 hold in store for the WA property market? Well given that our state economy is now weighing on rather than lifting the national economy and our WA’s Consumer Sentiment Index is the lowest of the five major states, it is difficult to see the overall housing market in WA improving substantially next year. Having said that, there is a push in the Eastern States to consider investing in WA as we are now much more affordable than Melbourne, Brisbane and in particular Sydney – remember when the Perth median house price was almost the same as Sydney?

When looking specifically at Albany, it would seem that the almost stagnant prices of the last 5 years are probably likely to continue – which is not too bad considering the pain in Perth and our North West. Albany property owners have not seen prices back to the heady days of 2006/2007 but we have at least enjoyed relative stability for quite some time now. Our rental market is still strong with a low vacancy rate, and less sales stock and lessening days on market are both relatively positive signs for house prices. Our market is not isolated from the overall state of the WA economy, however, retirees and lifestyle changers continue to show strong interest in our beautiful part of the state which has helped iron out the bumps. So in 2017 our property market might not be very exciting – but sometimes that’s a good thing!